Is it OK to sing along with traditional black gospel music? I was raised in the south and in many ways raised by black women (think the movie The Help). While I am an observant Jew, I find the music happy, hopeful and it gives me peace when I am depressed.

Is it OK to sing along with traditional black gospel music? I was raised in the south and in many ways raised by black women (think the movie The Help). While I am an observant Jew, I find the music happy, hopeful and it gives me peace when I am depressed.

Jewish tradition recognizes music as a Divine gift with exactly the properties you describe, and furthermore emphasizes the value of cheerfulness and the importance of avoiding extended depression. For that reason my strong inclination is to find as much room as possible to enable you to continue to enjoy the music you love.

On the other hand, there are clear prohibitions in Jewish law against participating, praising, and benefiting from the aesthetic accoutrements of what Judaism views as illegitimate religious practice. The questions here are

whether all performances and expressions of gospel music should be presumptively seen as religiously intended

how Judaism regards the forms of Christianity generally expressed in gospel music

the nature and status of recordings/electronic reproductions in Jewish law

I want to establish at the outset that singing along with recordings that explicitly express adoration of Jesus is certainly forbidden for Jews. I also want to make clear that I am bracketing the issues of men listening to female vocalists.

1) My sense is that gospel music as a genre nowadays has “crossed over” to a limited extent and is no longer sung only in Christian religious contexts and/or with religious intent. Therefore, if one is in a context that has no other explicitly religious content, and the lyrics of the relevant songs have no explicit references to Jesus, I think the genre of music is not inherently problematic. However, I hasten to add that I think in most settings such religious content and context will be introduced, and that I would assume religious context in most circumstances absent clear evidence to the contrary.

2) My understanding is that Jewish law regards belief in a divisible or divided Divinity (as opposed to multiple divinities) as prohibited for Jews and not for Gentiles (despite being false), and that the prohibition for Jews is profound and serious but not at the level of idolatry (although participation in Christian ritual can violate prohibitions of idolatry). This means in practice that it is certainly forbidden for a Jews to sing along with lyrics that explicitly refer to Jesus or other elements of a trinitarian theology, but that there may be no prohibition against singing along with other songs found on the same album (if the concept of album is at all relevant in the mp3 era) . At the same time, music arouses sympathy and identification, and if you are passionately attached to the music, it may be hard for you to avoid identifying with the specific emotions and ideas of the singer while listening.

3) Recordings of music do not automatically assume the legal status of the original performance, or the intent of the composer. From a formalistic legal perspective, the performer of a music CD, for example, is whoever turned on the player. Therefore the sound of a recording of gospel music, if you turned on the player, does not have any intrinsic prohibition attached to it – the question is what subjective impact it may have on you, or what impression it may create of you in others' minds. But if the lyrics are not inherently problematic, and it is clear to you that you can do so without for a moment sacrificing your Jewish commitment to an indivisible God, I don't see any prohibition with singing along to a recording.

You may be interested in a series of responsa written by Fellows of the Summer Beit Midrash of the Center for Modern Torah Leadership some years ago addressing similar issues with regard to the song Amazing Grace. They can be found here. Full disclosure: I am Dean of the Center and Rosh Beit Midrash of SBM.

One of the ways that the Jewish people responds to life’s challenges and tragedies is through learning Torah, which gives us life. I am posting my response to the above question on the same day that the world learned of the murders of Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel, and Gil-ad Shaar, the three Israeli boys kidnapped by terrorists over two weeks ago. I dedicate my small contribution of Torah below to them and their families. May their memories be a blessing.

I agree with you that a great deal of gospel music is happy and hopeful. This is not surprising, given its historic roots in the African American experience. Gospel has always been an expression of deep faith and of deep spiritual resistance to slavery, racism and hardship. I do not listen to a lot of gospel, but when I do, I too am inspired by its powerful religious themes, its joyousness, and its energetic celebration of the spiritual life. It is one of God’s musical gifts to the world, and, as you wrote, it clearly gives you peace when you feel depressed.

However, is it permissible according to Jewish law to sing along with gospel music, since it is Christian religious music used in church services?

First, a very few words about Christianity, from a Conservative Jewish legal perspective. Traditionally, Jewish law has forbidden us from having anything to do with the Christian religion, even from entering a church when religious services are not being held. This is because a major position within Jewish law defined Christian beliefs in the trinity and Jesus’ divinity, as well as Christian iconography depicting Jesus as God or one aspect of God, as avodah zarah, idolatry. However, another very important Jewish legal position holds that Christians are not idolaters, but gedurim b’darkhei ha-datot, nations bound by “the ways of religion.” Religions such as Christianity demonstrate some belief in one supreme God and they possess a moral code, even if their practices are different from ours and do not completely conform to Jewish ideas about monotheism. Thus, Christians may practice their religion as their form of monotheism, even though we Jews are expressly forbidden from practicing any form of their religion.

My colleague, Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky, explains that, based upon this latter approach, in our day, especially when we live in an open society amicably with our Christian neighbors, we may and should be able to visit their churches and church services. To be clear, we are absolutely forbidden from attending Christian worship in order to join in prayer, but we may certainly attend it for social purposes, as good neighbors and respectful visitors who seek to maintain good relations with them. (See his article, “Interfaith Relations,” in Martin Cohen and Michael Katz, eds. The Observant Life, pp. 727-750.)

May we sing Christian religious music? In church, during a Christian worship service, we may not, for that is worship in substance and appearance. I am going to assume that you are singing gospel music at home or in your car, which is certainly not a form of organized or even private worship. Further, as a religious Jew, you would have no intention of singing gospel for religious purposes. Therefore, I would support your singing along with your favorite Gospel tunes, especially if they lift you up in times of sorrow and doubt.

One important caveat, though: using the name of Jesus descriptively, for instance in an academic setting, should not be problematic for Jews, even though it is a Greek translation of the Hebrew, Yeshua, “salvation.” In that context, you would be using it for purely non-religious purposes. However, it is far more problematic for Jews to say Jesus’ name in any context where it is expressly being used to praise him as the Christians’ savior. This is especially the case when his name is used in combination with theological terms such as Christ or Redeemer. A technical distinction might be made between invoking Jesus’ name during a church service and shouting it in your den as you’re listening to a great gospel choir. Nonetheless, something about reciting his name in a song of praise, even privately and with no actual religious intent on your part, does not sit well with me. The letter of Jewish law might permit it, and I say “might” with great qualification, not having researched this matter sufficiently. The spirit of Jewish law would not permit it.

Thus, while you could sing gospel to lift up your spirit, avoid those songs that invoke the name of Jesus and of Jesus as savior. Choose those gospel songs that praise and thank God in general, without any reference to Jesus. Further, while I fully appreciate your emotional attachment to gospel, you may want to also give Hasidic niggunim and klezmer music a try, if you haven’t already.

Some Jews, of course, would disagree. They would say that the halakhah (traditional Jewish law) prohibits us from singing along with or even listening to gospel music, on the grounds that it is forbidden to derive benefit or pleasure (hana’ah) from anything connected to idolatrous worship (avodah zarah). This prohibition, of course, would go far beyond this specific musical genre. It would include all musical compositions originally composed for non-Jewish religious settings (think Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring). For that matter, it would cover many works of the popular genres – rock, folk, blues, country – whose words and imagery spring from Christian sources and evoke Christian themes. And it would place off-limits many great works of painting and sculpture that represent explicitly Christian themes and symbolism. Since listening to any such piece of music or contemplating any such work of art is likely to make us “happy” and “hopeful” and give us a sense of peace, Jews would therefore be obligated to avoid them all.

On the other hand, most streams of modern Judaism would have no problem with your singing the songs and delighting in all those works of art. Among these streams is Reform Judaism. Let me, a Reform rabbi, explain why we say it’s OK.

First, the prohibition assumes that Christianity is a form of “idolatry” or avodah zarah. Reform Judaism rejects this assumption. We follow the viewpoint of those rabbinical authorities dating back to the 12th century and earlier who declare that the monotheistic religions of our neighbors are not to be defined as idolatry. For this reason, the entire basis of the prohibition falls away.

Second, like most modern people we draw a fairly sharp distinction between “religious” and “secular.” While we definitely do not include Christian prayers, hymns, and works of art in our worship and liturgy, we recognize that once these works leave their original setting they can become secular and thereby lose their specifically religious function. They become expressions of the history of a particular culture – for example, the Western culture in which we participate – rather than acts of worship. So when I view a Pieta in a museum, when I listen to a musical rendition of a credo or a mass in a concert hall, or even when I sing along to “Amazing Grace” or “How Great Thou Art” at a music festival I am not performing an act of prayer or worship. Yes, I might respond favorable and viscerally to these works. They might even produce within me a feeling of happiness, hopefulness, and peace. But when they do so, they do it as works of art and not of religion… certainly not my religion.

Bottom line: as an “observant Jew,” I can enjoy and appreciate the gospel song, as long as I’m not using it as a means of worship, as a prayer to the God of Israel. So long as you can make that distinction and be mindful of it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t keep singing along.

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